The Tales Of Crowboy The Incredible: Of Ink and Power

Chapter Thirty Six

           "So.... wait." Lakire blinked. "You want our free day to be spent in the Alt world, with all the humans? And you think that'll be fun?" I had finished proposing my excellent idea of the day, which was taking the entire class into the human realm, and just letting them go ham. And I made this appealing to Majortrix to make it learning based is that I could teach them all about lifestyle, currency, and other various things. Majortrix bregrudglingly agreed, because he didn't have to teach and I would be doing all the work, meaning he could laugh at me and call me a skimander. 

     "Y'all, trust me." I said, and tried to persaude them even further. I lowered my voice, like I was telling them a secret, or a plan they hadn't thought of. "I know this realm. The normal realm. Or.... alt world." It was weird they called this the other world the Alt world. "I know the ins and outs, and Majortrix is just going to nod off and drink or something. I can get you all whatever you want." I thought about that for a second. "Wait. What's the currency here?"

     "Mostly it's barterings, but for professional things it's knots, which are gold and copper coins, jinks, which are another precious metal coin, and a blank, which is a sheet of paper with amounts on them. Ten knots are equal to a jink, and 20 jinkes and equal to a blank. There are more, but they don't really matter." Eliza said. I tried to do the math in my head, but I couldn't convert the numbers. 

     "Okay, you know what, alright. That sounds kind of similar to the human world currency. If y'all can get me human money, I can by y'all whatever you want. Or, you can give me knots and jinkes and blanks and stuff and if you tell me how I can revert it into USD, then I'll use my own money and pay for stuff." I said, the kids looked around, most of their faces blank. A few shrugged, and a few looked really excited. "Show of hands who wants to do my plan." Around half of the class raised there hands, and the majority of them looked somewhat uncertain.

     "Or, we can go to a cool place here." River said. "Like to the Emerald Fields, or even the mall." 

      "Maybe we can just use this time as a study hall? I have some classwork I want to work on, and I think now would be a great time to do it." A girl named Emerald said. Her girlfriend, Poppy, blew her a raspberry. 

       "Don't be lame. I wanna see the human world. And what if we make a bet." She lowered her voice even further, making us all lean in and strain our ears. "We all use our magic. Whoever can do it the most undetected gets whatever they want, and we all have to pool our money together and contribute." 

      "Poppy, don't be dumb! That's illegal." Eliza said. "You know we can't use our magic outside of school, but espeically not in the HUMAN WORLD!" 

       "Shut up, Eliza." Lakire hissed. "I say we do it. River, Poppy, your ideas are stupid. Don't be dumbasses, we're never allowed in the Alt world. Just do it. And Felix is going to help us out, so it's not unsafe or anything. Just don't be a dumbass and it'll be fine. I know that's hard for the lot of you, but just try to not fuck this up for the rest of us." Everyone else seemed much more accepting of the idea now that a handful of Legacies agreed with it. 

      I looked at Ginger for a split second, and she shook her head. I was going to ask if she wanted to be included in the I-know-my-way-around-humans talk. I wasn't going to press. This was probably all really new are disorienting, I wasn't going to try to make it any worse by adding pressure to remember. 

     "What have you skimanders decided?" Majortrix decided. "And you best not have made it something boring, like going to the damned Emerald Fields. Have you snowflakes not gotten sick of going there every field trip?" Lakire flipped River off from behind his back. 

       "I think we're going to go to the human world." Ginger said, and grabbed my hand. I smiled. 

        "As long as you can get a mass teleporter to get us all there, and I can cover it, Mentor." I said, which a even bigger grin. Majortrix sighed, and then called us over with the wave of his hand.

      "Good thing that I run this school. Otherwise the other teachers would have had my head. I can't believe I let you all think of this, ya little skimanders." He muttered, which made us all laugh. He unlocked a door, and opened it up to show us a room. "This, is a mass teleporter. Skimanders aren't supposed to use it unless they're red level or about to graduate. I'm making an exception because I don't really care about you lot, so consider yourselfs lucky." I opened my mouth to ask how it works, but Majortrix glued my toung to the roof of my mouth shut with a glare. "All of you, form a line, and hold hands. Felix, stay at the front of line." Ginger, who was still holding onto my hand, moved behind me. "Felix, because you're the skimander that came up with this dammed plan, you're in charge of teleporting us. Everyone just focus on Felix. If your mind wanders, then you'll wind up on Mars with no way to get back." That was probably an empty threat. But it scared enough of the kids. River and Lakire especially looked particularyly pale. 

     "Okay guys, uh, good luck? Just focus on me, and it'll be fine!" I said. I didn't know if I should just walk through the portal or give a motivation speech. Neither of them are my fine suit. I walked into the room, and looked around. I..... stayed in the room? God dammit! This was bullshit. 

     I turned around to confront Majortrix, sure that he was just making fun of me, and this wans't actually a teleporter, but when I looked back, I was standing in front of a 7-11. Oh shit. I really had worked. 

    "GINGER?!" I yelled. She appeared behind me. 

    "I'm right here. Don't panic. Also, I'm going to try my hardrest remember you, or at least this you, but I can already feel my magic slipping away, so yeah. The other kids will be here soon, so just don't freak out." She said. I nodded, and the other kids fell out of thin air, almost like they were being pulled by a rope. 

     "SHIT!" Someone yelled, as they saw a car speed by. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?" I fought the urge to laugh. 

      "Why does it smell so bad?" Another shouted, and wrinkeled their nose. 

    "That's a car, and it smells bad because of pollution. Y'all think you're high-tech, with your Nictors and all? That's funny. Anyway, we need a head count." I wouldn't have time to explain everything to them. Or, I would, but not right now. Right now, I had to be in teacher mode. "Okay everybody, buddy up. There's an odd number of us, so I'll be by myself." 

    "WHY ARE MY WINGS DISAPPEARING?!" Someone screamed, and that sent everyone else into a panic. I looked at Ginger, trying to get her to help, but she had moved out to the side, and seemed to be talking to herself. Alright. I would give her time. 

      "Don't panic. They'll come back. In this world, magic and wings and stuff aren't the default, so your body automatically tries to cover it up. Magic is just having your wings fold against your back, and all your scales are going invisible. Depending on what your primary magic is, you're going to have different things disappear and stay, but this is what happens to me." That was complete bullshit, but I was hoping that was some of the truth. Scales, tails, fangs and wings melted away, leaving some pretty freaked out and disgrunteled kids. 

     "You sure they'll come back?" Poppy asked. She flexed her hand, where her claws used to be.

      "I do this basically everyday. They'll come back. But now that that's over, buddy up." Jostling, and everyone got into pairs. I searched the group for Majortrix. He was off to the side, and staring at himself in a car window. He touched his face with a softness I had never seen before in him. At first, I was confused on why he was so tranfixed in his relfection, but then it hit me. His face. The bronze was still there. Whatever had happened must have been some deep magic to him, and he must have been hoping it would have melted away like his other magics. His face remained the same metallic color, and his eye was still golden.

     "ALRIGHT!" I screamed, loud enough for Majortrix to hear me. He scrambled away from the car, and back into the group, cursing and muttering under his breath. "Majortrix, if you don't mind, I'll take the lesson from here. You can go to a pub or something. If anyone askes, say you forgot your ID at home, and that you're in cosplay. They'll let you in. And no more than two drinks, no matter what. I need you to get back home." Majortrix nodded, and walked away. 

     As soon as he was out of sight, and far from earshot, I looked back at the group of 12 kids, eagarly looking at me, like vultures. "Okay. Who wants to have some fun?" I asked, and smirked.